Christmas is Cancelled: A Rant

(Not me)

After missing Thanksgiving due to illness and being sick for a solid month after that, I was looking forward to Christmas with my family.   My 20-year-old cousin with thalassemia had pneumonia recently and my elderly mom has had nightsweats and a constant cough after coming down with something my brother brought home from work in early November.  He got better; she didn't.  She's finished two rounds of antibiotics and had a chest x-ray which is rare for someone who avoids medical care like the plague.  Then I got the news that my sister had bloody diarrhea and respiratory symptoms--classic COVID symptoms for her. 

Christmas is cancelled. 

All of this is an inconvenience at worst, but viral infection is not.  It can lead to complications like pneumonia or fatal lung scarring diseases and permanent disabilities like heart failure, long COVID or Type I diabetes.  The majority of the over 80 autoimmune diseases in existence from MS to lupus to rheumatoid arthritis are triggered by viral infections.  That's why I'm so adamant about staying tf home when you're unwell. 

I know America has horrid working conditions & some jobs have no sick leave.  I talk about it all the time in my articles and real life.  That absolutely needs to change.  The solution is not to continue coming in sick to work indefinitely, it's organizing and striking until your demands are met.  Like workers in every other developed country in the world.  You can also change jobs/careers.  Continuing to work under these conditions is not acceptable because it's a silent endorsement of them; another topic for another day.



Truth

Well, can you?  Punk?

But let's be real:  the majority of the problem comes from workaholic adults who DO have sick leave & choose to come in while sick anyway, or to drop their sick child off at daycare/school while they're puking & shitting everywhere.  Some of you insist on taking optional outings to the clothing or grocery store, a sit-down restaurant or a bowling alley while acutely unwell.  I know because I hear your hacking cough and see your uncovered sneeze.  I also see your pale, red-faced baby screaming bloody murder with crusty eyes and snot running down to its chin.  Shame on you.

Going to work while you're sick is bad enough, but sending your kid to school/daycare while THEY'RE sick is bad parenting & you should feel bad.  It shows a major lack of empathy to send them out into the world when they should be resting and recovering in bed (or perhaps at the pediatrician being treated).  I can hear you now protesting "But-but-but they weren't sick when I dropped them off!"  Great, then I'm not talking to you.  Unless you then chose to leave them there after finding out.  I'm talking to people who KNOWINGLY push their sick child out of bed, onto a bus full of people & make them the teacher's problem for the day.  During COVID when kids did remote learning & parents worked from home, domestic violence rates soared.  That told me all I needed to know about how Americans really feel about their own families.  

I don't care that you have things to do--they're YOUR kids!  You shouldn't have had them if your plan was to pawn them off on the nearest non-related adult when they should be home with YOU.  School is not your babysitter--it's where kids go to learn, which isn't happening if your sick kid is disrupting class by puking all over the floor or sitting in the nurse's office all day.  Sick kids don't learn & are a distraction to other students. 

Being sent to school while acutely sick or in blinding pain is one of my worst memories from childhood.  The embarrassment you feel rocking back and forth in pain while trying not to puke.  The sensory overload of the flickering fluorescent lights and the smell of chalk and the teacher's voice.  I once fell down the stairs & sprained my ankle--a pain my mother knew personally because she'd done it herself--and she refused to pick me up 2 hours early.  I couldn't WALK.  But there were countless other times I was sent to school with searing pain from endometriosis or something infectious and needed to be home in bed.  




Consequences

We're #1:  Countries with highest monkeypox rates

The U.S. has the worst infectious illness rates in the developed world.  We led the entire planet in COVID infections and deaths for the whole pandemic, and we currently serve as a hotspot for treatment-resistant fungal infections, pertussis (whooping cough) and monkeypox to name a few. 

While developing nations like Africa or S. America often get the blame for STARTING pandemics, the U.S. has always been one of the worst offenders in enabling their spread.  Take AIDS for example:  a disease that originated in central Africa in the 1920s and was carried to Haiti by substitute teachers who'd worked there in the '60s somehow became a full-blown epidemic in the U.S.  The cause?  Our filthy blood donation practices, drug laws that made obtaining clean syringes illegal & unsafe sexual practices which were rampant during the '60s and '70s. 

The U.S. was among the only countries on Earth to accept blood from Haiti under Papa Doc Duvalier, whose Hemo-Caribbean agency had virtually no safety measures and paid poor blood donors $3 a day at a rate of 6,000 donors per month, then sending that blood & plasma onto the U.S.  This 1972 NY Times article raised the red flag almost a full decade before AIDS was discovered in 1981!  

But the bad decisions continued well after we knew how AIDS was spread.  

Not 1 CEO tried for (mass) murder.

Our president refused to utter the word "AIDS" in public until 1987... six whole YEARS after it was discovered.  Sex Ed classes were forbidden from teaching safer sex if it meant discussing icky things like anal sex ("sodomy" to the religious crowd).  Blood banks including the Red Cross refused to take measures that would've made blood donations safer until 1985--several years after they knew AIDS was a blood-borne disease.  Why?  It cost money & might make gay blood donors angwy.  Then Bayer shipped that tainted blood to countries around the world, killing untold numbers of hemophiliac children who relied on a safe blood supply to live.  Bath house owners refused to shutter their businesses despite being a known hot spot for transmission and rallied for the "right" of gay men to fuck strangers in public as thousands of those same gay men died horrible deaths. 

Are we seeing a theme here?  Let me spell it out for you:  America puts profits and individual entitlements above the common good and pays a hefty price.  Above the right of others to literally remain alive.  And the idiocy continues with our "Back to Work" rallies during the height of COVID, dangerous plasma collection practices & working conditions in general.

I regret to inform you that your comfort/convenience do NOT come before another person's health and safety.  We ALL have the right to life, liberty & pursuit of happiness, not just you.  (Emphasis on the "life" bit).  But your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.  Gun ownership might be legal but you don' t have a "right" to twirl a loaded gun at a busy intersection & play Russian roulette.  You don't have to be at that intersection--all the people heading to work, the hospital, weddings, funerals & other places DO.  Go play Russian roulette in your own house & risk your own life--you DO have that right.  (This is a bad analogy for going out in public unnecessarily while sick but you hopefully get the picture). 




Rights vs. Entitlements & the Common Good

Americans are unbalanced.

Americans confuse rights with entitlements and act as if they come with no responsibilities whatsoever.  Let's break it down with some examples:  You have a right to refuse to vaccinate your kids, but you don't have a right to send them to public schools, daycares or other places where they could infect the rest of us.  Which is pretty much everywhere.  You DO have the right to expose yourself to infectious illness at holiday gatherings, NYE parties & the like by not wearing a mask or staying home.  You do NOT have the right to then go out in public without a mask and spread the illness after coming down with it.  We all have the right to health & safety; to stay alive.  NONE of us has do the right to ultimate comfort or convenience at the cost of another person's health, safety or life.  

Killing someone makes you a murderer whether you do it with a gun or an infectious illness.  (Or in the case of United Healthcare's Brian Thompson, with insurance denials & delays). Violence and murder include ANYTHING that causes another person to die, not just shooting them dead in the street.  Your intentions don't matter because they're just as dead either way.  A lot of you have the blood of your fellow Americans on your hands, all because you wanted to eat INSIDE the Applebees during a pandemic.  

The price we pay in the form of lost productivity, economic hardship, healthcare worker burnout & healthcare costs due to this irresponsible, selfish behavior is unfathomable.   If you go to work while sick, you infect other people--usually more than just one.  Then THEY either have to miss work or come in sick and infect even MORE people, some of whom may end up hospitalized, dead or on disability for life.  They bring it home to their kids, who then spread it in their classroom, causing MORE parents to have to stay home from work with them.  This is why "no sick leave" policies are illogical: they cost more than it would cost to just pay workers to stay home while sick.  

But regardless of our nation's policies, we all have a responsibility to not spread infectious illness.   It's one intance where personal responsibility SHOULD be emphasized & is not.  Staying home or wearing a mask is a temporary inconvenience; the alternative is far worse.  

I'm sick & I missed Christmas.  Give me money for my work?  🥹🙏


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Easiest Firecracker Recipe on the 'Net

 

Ingredients

"Tools"


(Not shown:  My oven)

~~*This guide is for 1 serving for 1 person.  Adjust cannabis amounts as needed.*~~  

INGREDIENTS:  Graham Crackers, full-fat peanut butter, additional seasonings (honey, cinnamon, allspice, etc), 0.5 grams weed

TOOLS:  Aluminum foil, baking sheet, something to spread weed on crackers with (knife, toothpick, etc.), oven or toaster oven


STAGE 1:

- Grind weed coarsely but thoroughly
- Preheat oven to 250 F for 10 minutes
- Spread ground weed evenly on a piece of aluminum foil, then place foil on baking sheet
- Place the whole shebang on middle oven rack
- Bake for 10-12 minutes
- Take out & let cool

Spread that ish well so THC content comes out evenly.

STAGE 2:

- Preheat oven to 275-300 degrees
- Spread peanut butter GENEROUSLY on 2 crackers
- Sprinkle weed on both crackers, mixing it in evenly with a toothpick or knife
- Add honey, cinnamon or other spices to taste
- Sandwich the crackers together & wrap each sandwich in foil, covering completely
- Bake on middle shelf for 15-20 minutes (20 minutes at 275 F; 15 at 300).
- Cool & eat!  

Wrap each "sandwich" like this before baking to lock in the goodness.

That's it!  Only read on if you wanna know the nerdy "how" and "why" behind it all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ADDITIONAL INFO

- Weedmath:  Assuming your grass is 20% THC, a half-gram (0.5g) will contain roughly 100 mg of THC.  You can do the math from there re: how much to put on each cracker.  When in doubt, go conservative with dose.   

- Why grind "coarsely?"  It runs less risk of burning the tiny pieces this way, that's all.  Probably not a huge deal if decarbing for a shorter time like I did, but definitely leave it in bigger chunks if you're gonna leave it 40+ minutes.  (More on that below).  

Actual footage of my "coarsely-ground" weed before decarb

- Some websites say to decarb weed for no longer than 15 minutes at 250 F or you risk ruining it; others say nothing less than 35-40 minutes at 250 F will work... sometimes longer.  I find that properly preheating your oven + decarbing for 10-12 minutes works fine.  You want the weed toasted, not burnt.  (You do want the temp a tad hotter for Stage 2 though).  Decarbing will stink up your WHOLE living space so some people prefer to do it in a Mason jar, but I don't feel comfy putting those in the oven.  

- You can substitute Nutella or another nut butter for peanut if you like.  Just make sure it's not some weirdo low-fat option, as fat is what makes the edibles, well, edible.  I had no idea there were so many nut butters out there:  almond, walnut, cashew, pecan... Some have slightly more fat than peanut butter, but again, choose the one you like best.  

- Firecrackers can be sweet or savory depending on your taste.  I've included the simplest recipe that still tastes decent & gets the job done.  (You are eating ground-up weed, so the taste won't ever be gourmet-level but you can disguise it somewhat with the right amount of sweetness & spice/salt & herbs).  Other possible combos:

* Graham crackers + Nutella + marshmallow cream (S'mores)

* Saltines + premade cannabutter + hot honey + garlic powder & spices

* Cheesy homemade crackers with weed baked in (example).

You can even substitute Vanilla Wafers, bagel bites or another hard-ish "base" if you please... get creative!  Just remember you must include the full-fat "medium" (nut butters, actual butter, cooking oil, etc) & decarbed weed for it to "work".  Hemp can also be made into Firecrackers this way if you prefer a mellower high. 

- After letting them cool sufficiently, you can store them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks if you don't eat them all at once.  Just make sure they're in an airtight container.

😌 ☁ 🌈

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A Nicotine-Cessation Aid That Actually Works

If you're like a large portion of the population who is hooked on nicotine and wants to stop it in ALL forms for good, you need to know about cytisinum (Desmoxan).  It popped up recently on Amazon while searching for my usual and the reviews are fabulous--nearly all 5 stars.  So I typed "Desmoxan" into Google and found similarly amazing reviews on Reddit and other forums by people who've actually used it. 

Cytisine is an alkaloid that occurs naturally in a number of plant species.  Why might smokers not know about this safe, fast-working treatment option?  Because, despite being included on the World Health Organization's "Essential Medicines" List, it's not available in the U.S.  Thank the FDA for that.  Guess they were too busy tampering with Benzedrex inhalers & trying to ban kratom to look into it.
  

Available OTC in many countries; not approved in the U.S.

We have bupropion and Chantix, the latter of which is known to cause horrific hallucinations and nightmares in many users, but for some retarded reason we don't have cytisinum.  (Oh, and apparently the FDA just REMOVED the black box warning on Chantix about psychiatric risks--a topic worthy of its own article).  Cytisinum works in as little as 5 days.  You just take 1 tablet every 2 hours and wait, quitting nicotine on the 5th day.  One box provides enough medication for a complete treatment.  

Here's one user's testimony on Reddit:

You made a good choice with cytisine.

I also used it, and waited until the fifth day to stop. What I felt was that every day I had less desire to smoke, so these 5 days should be a kind of habituation for the body.

The fifth day is a step into the abyss. I was afraid that cytisine wouldn't work, but the truth is that I didn't have a single withdrawal symptom.

For me the difficult part was having to relearn what to do with my hands haha.

The reviews on Amazon are equally impressive.  I can't say I've tried it myself because I haven't smoked since I was a fetus (thanks, mom), but it appears to be a safe and effective treatment option with very few, if any, side effects.  Make sure to read the package insert included with the medication & follow its instructions carefully.  Do NOT use while pregnant or having sex without birth control because it is teratogenic.  The lethal dose is 2 mg/kg.  Just follow the instructions and you should be fine.  

People who switched from cigarettes to vaping should be advised that vaping carries its own risks, some of them extremely serious.  It's not a risk-free way to consume nicotine as it was originally marketed, in other words.  The vapor may contain heavy metals, irritants & other toxins and the nicotine itself is not good for the cardiovascular system.  And then there's EVALI, which you definitely do not want.  Addiction to anything is inconvenient and at times costly, which is why vapers and smokers alike (and smokeless tobacco users!) should give cytisine a try.  A box goes for $41-$42 on Amazon.  

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On Boundary Violation in the Alphabet Community

🖕

I keep seeing posts about how labels like "lesbian" or "gay" mean whatever the individual using them wants them to mean, or that women who are attracted to males can call themselves lesbians.  Sure, you can say lesbianism includes women who date/fuck/love men.  And I could identify as a proud Black woman or an Army veteran who earned a purple heart in Vietnam.  The difference is I'd get ripped to shreds for saying such things (rightfully so!) and you'd probably just get some eyerolls, if that. 

That's because women--especially those who exclusively love other women--are the only group it's still okay to randomly "identify as" when you're nothing of the sort.  The only group viewed by mainstream society as little more than a porn category despite being the only group not GIVEN a porn search option on most sites.  The only group constantly pressured by bisexual & transgender folk about our ORIENTATION, as in "it's biphobic/transphobic to exclude us from your dating pool!"  What part of "orientation" don't we understand?  No means no, not "keep negotiating like a used car salesman".  🙄

This is why I despise the word "queer":  it's a catchall, meaningless term that erases/minimizes gay & lesbian identities & stomps on our boundaries, just as Newspeak-y misogynistic terms like "vagina owner," "birthing person" and "chest-feeder" do.  One day you're celebrating the legalization of gay marriage & the next you're watching female boxers get knocked tf out by hulking intersex or trans fighters as pedophiles proudly identify as "MAPS" (Minor Attracted Persons) or "Virtuous p3dophiles" (yes, really).  How'd we get here? 

Answer:  The "queering" of society & the blurring of consent lines.  By turning "woman" into a catchall class that includes everyone from females to trans-identifying males and females (both of whom can compete in the "women's" category in sports) while men are faced with no such problems.  By the degradation of the English language and the intentional destruction of the MEANING behind words, specifically those used to identify females and lesbians.  Who's behind this agenda the TQ+ folx are pushing so hard? 

The "agenda" is to make all sexual orientations, kinks, fetishes & paraphilias "normal" by gradually widening the circle, taking what used to be a strictly orientation-based group (LGB people) and expanding it to include others.  Many others, including some criminal others.  Gay/Bi/Lesbian people are now "Queer"; "woman" now includes both sexes and the imaginary third "non-binary" option; "love is love" apparently extends to chomos & proud pedophiles.  And whoomp, there it is.  ^^^  They've been doing this to gays since the '60s/'70s with groups like NAMBLA and PIE trying to tag along at Pride parades.  And until about 2012, LGB people fought against them as hard as we fought FOR marriage equality.  

Not so anymore.




Back to the Bad Old Days

Was this homophobic hatemonger right?

Those of us older than 30 remember a time when it wasn't like this.  We're going backwards & this time it's not conservatives sending us there.  Anita Bryant warned of homosexuals who tried to "convert" children by brainwashing and sexually abusing them, and I'll be damned if she wasn't right about some of you gendercult convertees.  The push to transition children behind their parents' backs at public school, peddle dangerous puberty blockers and put males in female spaces (and detractors on gov't watch lists) is not about inclusion or acceptance of transpeople.  It's societal grooming carried out by gradually lowering our defenses & desensitizing us to increasingly extreme shit.  You don't want acceptance, you want to destroy the last taboo, aka p3dophilia or whatever your specific "kink" is.  Maybe crossdressing in public, breastfeeding, menstruation or pregnancy.  The pedo wing of this movement wants to keep kids in a perpetual Peter Pan-like state of prepubescence via puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.  So you can hopefully see our concern.

I've identified 4 distinct groups that take shelter under the TQIA+ umbrella.  These are:  the autogynephiles/fetishists, the Munchausen Moms & fundie parents who'd rather have a straight daughter than a gay son or are angling for their own show on TLC a la Jazz Jennings' mother; the pedophiles & the Cluster B's (narcissists, borderline personalities, histrionics & anti-social PD).  Of course this doesn't include the victims, who mostly consist of gay youth, autistics, adolescent/teen girls trying to escape the male gaze/objectification & the overtly mentally ill.  You may have noticed someone missing from this group that bears its name:  actual transsexuals who truly want to live as their desired sex WITHOUT forcing the world to play along.

For all of modern history, fetish behavior like "sissification" and crossdressing stayed behind closed doors, but that's not good enough anymore.  Porn has desensitized men to everything humans innately consider disturbing/humiliating/wrong, so they have to keep upping the ante with more extreme content & behavior.  (Or should I say, their own unwillingness/inability to control their porn consumption habits has caused this, because no inanimate object--be it porn, drugs or other vices--"makes" you do anything.  It's a choice & we need to start treating it as such).  And whaddya know:  by simply identifying as trans and taking no further steps, they've been granted free reign of women's safe spaces, from locker rooms and bathrooms to women's prisons & rape crisis centers, the latter 2 being by far the most dangerous & egregious.  Imagine being locked in a cell with a 6'2 nonbinary genderqueer in for violent sex crimes against women or kids, an all too common occurrence in this population.

Anyone with the critical thinking skills God gave a piss ant can see the other goal of this movement:  undoing the gains made by Women's Lib & the Gay Rights movements of the late 20th Century.  While this isn't the (conscious) goal of every trans or "queer" person, it is for a select powerful few at the top of key institutions who hide in plain sight behind the guise of "progressivism."  In reality they're nuking women's hard-won gains like Title IX and drawing general disapproval for lesbians and gays for the first time in a decade.  It's a men's rights movement at its core and if all the above isn't a deal breaker for you, then you're just as culpable.






Bisexual Self-Deception: The Real "Biphobia"

Refusal to date/fuck you is not a "phobia".  This is rapey af.

Sadly the T's & Q's aren't the only ones stomping on peoples' boundaries in this "movement."  Bisexuals, many of whom view men and women as interchangeable and say things like "I fall in love with the soul, not the body" are just as bad.  Modern bisexuals tend to fall into two equally maladjusted categories:  those who claim "everyone's a little bi" & those who go in the other extreme direction, diving headlong into denial that THEY are bisexual despite all the evidence while trying to redefine lesbianism to include them.  Spoiler:  it doesn't and never will.

Here's a little refresher for those who are confused:   

Homosexual = exclusively attracted to the same sex

Heterosexual = exclusively attracted to the opposite sex

Bisexual = attracted to both sexes

Pansexual = attracted to people regardless of sex/gender identity

Asexual = not attracted to anyone sexually

See how that works?

On another note, bisexuality doesn't necessarily mean you like both sexes equally or in the same way throughout your life.  It can be static or fluid (see: the "bi-cycle") but either way, bisexuals have the option to date/marry/have biological kids with the opposite sex at some point, and that comes with a lot of privileges. Not to say bisexuals don't face their own unique form of oppression, but that's just it:  it's not interchangeable with ours.  This is why accurate, well-defined descriptive terms are needed.  Not vague words like "queer".  

And while we're on the subject: a person's refusal to date or fuck you for ANY reason is not discrimination or oppression.  It's a right we all have.  Nobody owes you their affection or attraction, nor do they owe you an explanation for why they're not giving it.  Rejection sucks but it's a normal, necessary part of dating and relationships.  Your choices are:  1.)  Cope, or 2.)  remain forever single.  That's where your rights end.  

Better than WHAT?  Quit fetishizing this.

Male Exclusion:  A Feature of Lesbianism, not a Bug

Lesbianism (and other forms of monosexuality) are not fluid or changing.  We will never "make an exception" for a man even if we want nothing more in the world than to be "normal," make our parents proud or be accepted by our faith community.  Even if being lesbian brings financial struggles because men still make more money than women for doing the same work.  Even if our dating pool is tiny & full of maladjusted people, some of whom are literally insane due to dealing with a lifetime of homophobia & exclusion.  Even if we're literally gaybashed, harassed & physically threatened due to our sexuality...  Told we're destined to burn in Hell for all eternity.  Disowned.  Kicked out or removed from the will.  And so on. 

And why is that?  Because we can't simply decide to be attracted to men when one who checks all the "right boxes" takes interest in us.  Or when our entire family AND faith community are pressuring us to marry & start a family.  Or any other situation.  That's because we're 0% attracted to men sexually or romantically.  Many of us are physically repulsed by them.  Not all of us, and it's not a moral revulsion, but the smell of a man, his body hair, bodily fluids and body parts--all elicit an innate "ick" response.  (Sorry if this sounds pedantic to those with an IQ in the triple-digits but I'm spelling it out for the bisexuals who haven't grasped that their worldview doesn't apply to everyone).  

Gays & bisexuals are different in other important ways too.  Unless you're lucky enough to go to a giant school in a progressive area, lesbians & gays missed out on an entire developmental stage in middle/high school:  first date, first kiss, prom, homecoming, first sexual experience, first committed relationship.  These vital formative events are delayed until we break free from our families, small towns or backward communities & gain the freedom to live our truths--which sometimes doesn't happen until the golden years of life (if at all).  But in the meantime one thing we AREN'T doing is sleeping with the opposite sex and enjoying it. 

Bisexuals at least have the OPTION to experience those "firsts" in their teen years by being in an opposite-sex relationship if the opportunity presents itself.  They're not guaranteed those things, of course, but their sexual orientation doesn't preclude them from experiencing them.  And what often happens to lesbians while their peers are having those wonderful formative experiences is a lot worse than the usual lesbian longing:  We're often violated or taken advantage of by predatory males who refuse to take no for an answer. 

Again, "not all lesbians" are violated by men nor can those things TURN you gay, but it's certainly something that can happen when a smaller/weaker woman says 'no' repeatedly to numerous horny teenage or 20-smtg males because she's sickened by the mere concept of sex with them.  As a lesbian whose only sexual encounters with men were non-consensual and occurred after saying "no," "stop" or "take me home" clearly/repeatedly, this definitely adds to my disgust toward the male of the species--a disgust that was already present due to my orientation but was taken 20 steps further by these encounters.  (The fact that I even feel the need to fucking disclose this to a bunch of online strangers to explain/justify my orientation is proof that lesbians aren't taken seriously as a class and misogyny is the rule rather than the exception).    

Meanwhile our refusal to "just give men a try" is often painted as closed-mindedness by bisexuals, which would be funny if not so fucked up.  It's our orientation. Something we didn't choose & can't change. Something that affects every aspect of our lives profoundly, often negatively.  Read that until you understand it.





Words Have Meanings:  Taking Back "Lesbian"

Respect this or catch a canister of mace to the face.

While you don't need to be a "Gold star" to be considered lesbian, you can't enjoy sex or romance with men.  Any men, even "that special one".  A lesbian would choose lifelong celibacy if she was the last woman on Earth and every man around her was a former GQ Man of the Year or Forbes 500 member.  That is to say, there's literally NO circumstance under which an actual lesbian would choose to date, love or sleep with a man.  BECAUSE ATTRACTION AND REVULSION ARE NOT A CHOICE.  Key words:  choose/choice.  Short of a religious fundamentalist upbringing by parents who control her every move, no lesbian would ever date or sleep with a man of her own volition, nor would she enjoy any aspect of it enough to repeat the experience or make it "official" with a male-female relationship.  Not willingly at least.  

The fact that (gay or straight) men's identities are not up for debate like this is proof positive that misogyny and lesbophobia are still a huge problem.  It's giving corrective rape & it needs to stop.  While you work on that, also stop generalizing YOUR bisexual experience to people it doesn't apply to. Namely straight and (especially) gay people who are already dealing with enough.  Sexual orientation is not a matter of open/closed-mindedness, and claiming it is makes you a homophobe.  Like, a real one and not a "waaaah she won't sleep with me!" faux-phobe.

Don't nobody wanna deal with this, least of all lesbians.  

And one more thing.  A question really.  Why do bisexual women so often insist on dating straight men or lesbian women rather than other bisexual men & women who love like they do?  That's pretty telling in itself, especially if "everyone is a little bi".  If these bisexual-monosexual relationships happen naturally, fine.  But there's no denying that the lesbian-bi woman relationship is nearly fetishized in many circles, pushed on a captive audience (lesbians) by bisexual women for whom we're merely an option. 

Plenty of lesbians are open to dating bi women, but not all of us are interested in navigating the challenges inherent in a mixed-orientation relationship.  That's not a "phobia," nor are lesbians "threatened" by your attraction to men.  We're turned off by it, and by the general uncertainty of bisexuality which the bi-cycle article linked above goes into at length.  And we have every right to include or exclude you as a potential partner as a result of this or any other trait we find unattractive or incompatible.  You have the same right.  Be grateful we all have this freedom because not everyone in the world does. 

To those in active denial, quit making up terms like "bisexualesbian" and accept your bisexuality for what it is.  Even if you're 99% attracted to women and 1% to men, you're not gay as long as that 1% exists. It's the potential for attraction to men, not whether you're currently attracted to one that counts when determining if you're lesbian or bi.  Around 85% of bi women end up marrying & reproducing with MEN, so even if we were "threatened" by your attraction to them, it would be wholly justified.  

If indeed biphobia exists, it's strongest among bisexuals who twist themselves into pretzels to deny their true identity in favor of boundary- and common sense-defying labels.  By stomping gays' boundaries while crying "biphobia" and minimizing differences between the sexes in favor of a "gendered soul" worldview, this part of the alphabet rainbow behaves more like the trans wing than they do the lesbians and gays.  Generalizing, of course.  But this definitely applies to the most vocal portion such as the /r/bisexual community on Reddit.  

Thanks for attending my TED Rant.  Please feel free to die mad in the comments.  ↷ 

On Trump's Hemp/CBD Ban

Coming off the disastrous gov't shutdown, Our Liar in Thief passed a sneaky bill that quietly undoes all the progress of the Farm Bill of 2018 which legalized hemp/CBD products containing 0.03% THC or less.  And just like that, a $28 billion industry was wiped out overnight.  That's right:  this tight-eyed motherfucker, who proudly posed with a pornstar while appearing stoned out of his orange gourd, has banned hemp products:

High much?

The deal was pushed by ancient-ass Mitch McConnell, notorious recipient of alcohol & tobacco industry funding.  Why wiping out all these paying jobs would be considered part of the "deal" to reopen the government is beyond me, and whether it should even be legal for such consequential things to be tacked on at the end of bills nobody reads before signing is highly debatable.  If it's that easy for one person to make sweeping federal changes, why doesn't some Democrat legalize all drugs?  Or make abortion legal across all 50 states?  If Republicans can issue blanket bans at the orders of one fucked up old fossil, we should've seen a LOT more progress by now from the "opposition".  It's clear these sneaky bill addendums are reserved for taking the country backward & penalizing hardworking, law-abiding Americans.  

Here's a rundown of the effects this idiotic ban will have:

The proposal would redefine hemp under federal law, banning Delta-8, THCA flower, THC-P, and other intoxicating hemp products that have filled shelves since the 2018 Farm Bill. But it doesn't stop there: the bill will also effectively outlaw non-prescription CBD products by limiting the entire package/container to no more than 0.04% THC--an unattainable number. That means your child with Dravet Syndrome who has 30 seizures a day & relies on affordable OTC cannabidiol is now shit out of luck. Well, unless you can afford the up to $83,193 price tag for a year of Epidiolex, the Rx version of CBD. It's unknown how this bill will affect the sale of cannabis (marijuana) seeds, which are considered hemp products under the 2018 Farm Bill, or how the entire thing will be applied in states that've legalized recreational or medicinal cannabis.

Oh please, this whore for the poison-shilling industries never had a "soul".

Methinks this is the end goal:  to outlaw actually-effective supplements and force Americans to pay 3 times for their medicine--once to the private insurer, once to the prescriber and once again at the pharmacy.  It's BEEN the motivation behind the relentless drive to ban kratom, which could easily happen at this point with the way things are going. Whether you use hemp/CBD products or not, you should be fighting mad that one or two corporate-funded politicians can render a whole industry dead with the stroke of a pen. Because it could happen to YOUR job, industry or medicine next. 

I've written before about shady attempts by the FDA to ban supplements that've never killed a single soul, rendering them available by Rx only.  Many such bans passed as part of the "COVID Cares Act" under Biden so this is by no means a partisan issue.  Indeed, Obama twisted China's arm to ban 116 research chemicals with one bill in 2016, effectively kicking off the fentanyl epidemic when those RC labs switched to making fentanyl analogues instead of "bath salts" or "Spice".  Prior to this, even the DISCUSSION of opioid research chemicals was forbidden in online RC forums.  No, this isn't a partisan issue: It's an issue of allowing representatives with ulterior motives to quietly pass earth-shattering laws that should absolutely be up for popular vote, if not Congressional vote. 

These bans are not intended to protect the public but to eliminate competition & protect the profits of the pharmaceutical, private health insurance, alcohol, tobacco & drug testing industries.  You can hawk ineffective or even dangerous supplements all day, but as soon as it becomes clear that a supplement is taking $$$ out of these industries' greedy mouths because it actually works, it's a wrap.  We saw 80+ years of this with cannabis, they've tried it with kratom which competes with opioids, sleep aids, antidepressants & other patented drugs & they tried it previously with CBD when Epidiolex was hitting the market. Enough is enough.  We're essentially allowing Big Pharma to write our drug laws--laws responsible for an untold amount of death & suffering due to adulteration of the illicit drug supply & zero-tolerance drug education that doesn't work.

See?  Even Google AI admits it was profit-driven!

All these crooked bougie motherfuckers have been waving a potential federal rescheduling or decriminalization of THC/cannabis in front of our faces for DECADES (since the Carter administration!) without a single step made toward that end, yet one bill we didn't even get to vote on can wipe out the entire legal hemp industry overnight?  Something's very wrong with that picture.  And again, it's not a Republican/Democrat thing other than the fact that both sides are guilty of using these backdoor bans to their advantage & our detriment.  If it's this easy to make sweeping changes to American industry & drug law without even alerting the public first, we may as well have never left the monarchy because we're being ruled by an all-powerful untouchable class that acts as judge, jury & executioner.  Our input not needed.

And y'all wonder why I say voting in its current form is useless.  We've got a "representative" government that does NOT represent us, any of us.  Black, white, old, young, middle class, poor, healthy, disabled or otherwise.  Here's hoping all you conservatives in the hemp industries of Kentucky, Texas, rural Oregon, Florida & Utah realize you voted for a crooked con artist who doesn't give one shit about you.  Not one.  With his billionaire cronies, Trump has brought about more financial stress to Americans via federal firings, layoffs, destruction of social welfare programs/SSI & now, the wiping out of an entire legal industry than any administration in recent memory.  They don't want us on welfare, but they're also destroying the few decent jobs we have available & doing fuckall to ensure that employers are required to pay workers a living wage.  You're gonna have to pick one because people have to eat.  In the words of Bob Marley, "A hungry man is an angry man".  And that's where I'll sign off.

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Boycott Google Chromebook

Let the record reflect that Google Chromebooks fucking suck monkey balls.  While there are some convenient things about them (being able to switch to a new laptop and just magically have all your saved files available), that comes with a cost and the bad far outweighs the good.

Let's start with the fact that you literally can't delete saved files.  Well, you CAN but it takes forever and half the time you get an error message like this: 

Results when I try to delete literally any file from Chromebook.

This becomes especially problematic when you run out of storage space & your laptop starts lagging/glitching.  At that point, you're given two options:  delete the files (can't) or buy more memory (won't).  Yeah, I already bought the computer so you can get all the way bent if you think I'm spending more to store said files on the computer I already own.  I'm no rocket surgeon, but I strongly suspect the reason they make it so hard to delete files is so you will buy more space.  Call me a conspiracy theorist if you please.  

Then there's the "app" issue.  Why would a laptop need to download an app?  Isn't that a phone thing?  No.  Turns out it's not exclusively a phone thing.  Yet all the Android apps are developed for (wait for it) an ANDROID PHONE, which Chromebook is not.  This means they don't work properly on Chromebooks, or if they do, the display is so funked up it's as good as useless.  Apps are notoriously less secure than websites, and the fact that Chromebook requires you to download them is just another opportunity to upsell you shit.  Because so many apps are not free.  Or the free version has limited features.  Or the free version sucks.  Or tries to sell you MORE shit in the form of popup ads.  You get the picture.

Play Store's results when searching "Youtube app"

Speaking of apps, I recently went to reinstall the Youtube app from the Google Play Store only to find it's notably absent.  Instead, they offer you an assortment of other video player apps that are NOT Youtube.  Why reinstall Youtube, you ask?  Because every time I click a new video, I get this error message after approximately 1 minute of watching:

So frustrating.

So YT is useless on this contraption & there's no option to do a fresh install.  Coincidentally (or not), YT is owned by Google so again, the question of whether this is by design comes into play.  It's bad enough YT made it impossible to block ads and tries to get you to buy the paid versions (YT Premium, YT Premium Lite, YT Music, etc,) but this is a step too far.

THEN there's the privacy issue.  This one is huge so stay w/ me.  When you search Google regarding the privacy level of Google Drive, it says "Yes, Google Drive is private, photos are set to private by default, etc."  But when you ask Google whether Google employees can access/view your Drive files, you get a very different answer:  (Try searching "Is Google Drive private?" followed by "Is Google Drive private from Google employees" to see for yourself).

"Private to you?"  Nice word trickery.

Yeah, so not private at all.  And what are the "specific circumstances" that allow them to access your files?  What's to stop them from just doing it because they fucking FEEL like it?  After watching a special on the epidemic of computer repairmen rifling through private saved files on personal devices, I no longer have ANY faith that these powerful creeps aren't doing the same thing at Google.  The bad thing is you'd never know & have no way to prove it if they were.  Saved files (photos, documents, videos & all the rest) have always been private by default in that they were saved to the actual device and not some poorly defined "cloud".  As something of a digital hoarder, my device is full of said files, some of which are highly intimate/private.  The thought that some twisted troon techie is perusing my saved files with his girldick in one hand and a Redbull in the other makes my stomach turn.  

And then there are these issues.  It seems Google's lack of privacy & informed consent is an ongoing, worsening situation. 

Gemini AI scans your gmails

Google Search deterioration

Google charges your bank account for using auto fill for debit/credit cards


That's right:  They literally charge your bank account for using autofill to save your CC/debit card info in Chrome.  And you're never informed that this will happen.  I found this out after receiving repeated fraud alerts from my bank concerning $1 monthly charges from Google Play, which I don't (knowingly) use.  In my opinion this is worse than the Google Incognito thing that they're currently facing a class action lawsuit for due to the lack of informed consent.  If another class action pops off, let's just say I'll be first to sign on.  If a greedy ass bank flags it as fraudulent, that pretty much means it is.


Conclusion

Yes, Chromebooks are affordable.  But there are better options in the same price range.  Damn near any Windows laptop is gonna be more secure, have more storage space & just be a better option all around.  That's because Windows saves files to your actual device and doesn't try to upsell you on storage space.  Yes, Chromebooks aren't susceptible to viruses like other PCs, but the privacy issue is so much worse than any spyware virus you could ever encounter that it cancels out the good.  The overall performance, durability & function of Chromebooks is shit-tier.  Like really, really bad. 

I've taken to uploading my Google Drive files to sites like Proton Drive that offer free encrypted storage.  Then I just mass delete the whole folder from my Chromebook to free up space.  This eliminates the problem of having to manually delete individual files (which you really can't do on Chromebooks) while securing your files via encryption in a way that Google employees CAN'T access.  Nordlocker and MEGA are other viable options for avoiding the Google storage sales pitch while freeing up memory.  Just never forget your login info or you lose all your files.

These are all Google-owned products/services.

When you consider all the apps/sites owned by Google, it all becomes a little too Big Brother/1984.  This is why monopolies are bad.  Where is the FTC to break up this sham?  When the entire internet crashed recently, it was because Amazon's servers weren't functioning.  One company's glitch rendered 1/3rd of the ENTIRE INTERNET unreachable.  If that doesn't scare/enrage you, it should.  We're talking a third of the entire planet's communication, information & connection capabilities.  Sites like Doxy, ehrs (electronic health records) & Salesforce that medical professionals & social workers use for their jobs--gone.  Google's ownership of so many different products, services & sites is setting them up to be  as powerful as Amazon.  The very site I'm typing this on?  Owned by Google.  The device I'm sending it from?  Google product.  The Android phone you're likely reading it on?  Google. 

*Quietly removed from logo & code of conduct as Google enshittifies.*

In its early days, Google's motto was "Don't Be Evil."  It was scrawled across whiteboards throughout the company and was incorporated into the corporate logo. Then they quietly dropped it from both the logo (2015) & the company's actual code of conduct (2018).   

Again, at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I don't think this was some accident or oversight.  Google has become so fucking evil that using that motto would be laughable & potentially open them up to false advertising penalties if only our regulators weren't owned by corporate donors.  Companies will be exactly as evil as you let them be, hence the need for agencies like the FDA, FTC & EPA.  Except the fact that lobbying and big donor money is allowed in politics means these failsafe agencies work for the very companies they're paid to regulate.  It's a fox guarding the henhouse situation.

But the very idiots being violated 10 ways from Sunday by crony capitalism are the first to rush to its defense in an argument because "socialism bad".  The brainwashing runs deep.  

TL;DR - Don't buy a Chromebook unless you want rando techies having access to your most private saved files.  Or you want a glitchy laptop that doesn't let you delete files & tries to sell you more storage space.  (Hopefully this doesn't get hidden behind a censorship wall since Google owns Blogger!)